Search: “Islamic State”

If you are really seized with an issue – and I mean really, really burning with zeal and a desire to right a perceived wrong – would you not want to put your commitment to the test as soon as you could? Would you not want to show the world that what you fervently believe […]

For this blog I had to consult my eldest daughter, who is a Carleton University journalism grad. I wanted to confirm, as I had suspected, that those who write articles are not necessarily the same ones who write headlines. She also added that when it came to online news stories headlines are constructed to garner […]

Last week a devastating fire broke out in the popular Byward Market area of Ottawa and caused significant damage to several restaurants, including one of my favourites. The fire took hours to get under control in part due to the connectedness of the structure and the fact that some of the buildings date back to […]

If I were to ask ten people chosen at random what ‘terrorism’ means, I’d likely get some combinations of the following: it involves killing or trying to kill civilians; it is inspired by an idea – religious, political, ideological or something along that line; it is usually carried out by non-state actors; terrorists want to […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on April 1, 2019. If you are like me – and I really hope you are not for many, many reasons! – you probably read the news with a certain slant and through a certain filter. In my case, I read almost everything via a terrorism lens – […]

You know you are getting old when you come across a story about an event you were heavily involved in and realise that it happened so long ago that most of your friends, family and acquaintances really have no idea what you are talking about when you raise it. In my case the story centres […]

As I have written on many occasions in the past, we have ‘terrorism on the brain’. I wish I could write otherwise, but in a world where something happens somewhere on almost a daily basis it would be disingenuous of me to say that terrorism is not a frequent scourge, and hence it is on […]

If you start a social movement and want to recruit new members it is probably a good idea to be confident. No one would join a group that advertises itself as “We’re # 45!” You gotta go big or go home. If you are a terrorist or violent extremist group the same advice applies. Show […]

My late mother taught me a lot and left me with advice that has stood the test of time. One of the things she told me was that it was rarely a good idea to engage in talks about politics or religion. Both are often very personal and very important to people’s identity. We are […]

If there is one activity that humans engage in that is worse than genocide I’d like to know what it is. Genocide is the deliberate intent to wipe an entire people off the face of the earth. The UN defines it as: “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or […]